Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hi everyone.

I decided to stick the innersole to my slipper again as it had come adrift, not a mean feat as it turned out!

What a mess I was in with both hands stuck fast and no Dave to help, I had to ring Jay my friend for help (again no mean feat) Jay arrived and the task of getting me unstuck began. We tried everything, in the end Jay had to cut my hand out of the shoe...

The tube of glue was a very different story, it kept springing leeks every where, I kid you not; it shot straight out on my tummy like a balloon full of water springing a leak.

You will possible notice that I had to take a shower with glue still stuck to me and change my clothes due to them being stuck to my tummy!

After the shower (which we had hoped would do the trick) it did not, we tried soaking the glue of in acetone but as you can see my hand could not go in the widest cup we could find!

We eventually managed to get it off by dipping a stick in acetone and forcing my fingers apart!! The air was blue with screams of OUCH. Only I could put a sticky messy tube onto a shelf. You have guessed it, I was stuck again!Once we removed Tina the glue was stuck fast

Dave returned home and came to our rescue…well sort of, as you can see once the tube and I was free of the shelf, it became firmly stuck on Dave!!!

Once we removed the offending tube from Dave, poor Dave was left to chip the glue off!!

Monday, September 29, 2008

I was thrilled to bits to see an Iceland open just down the road from us. The opening day was last Wednesday but I had Bible study in the morning and then straight on for lunch at a friend’s house and so could not go. I was not too sad because I knew I would be sooo devastated to see all that cheap English meat that I so desire to cook with, and not have anywhere to store it. We never got to go on Thursday either because other things kept popping up, as I said I was not sure I wanted to be upset by it anyway. Thursday evening we went to Bible study. After the study we were all sitting round chatting and someone mentioned the new Iceland, they were all saying how wonderful it was and how cheap the food was. Someone said “You are quiet Tina, haven’t you been yet? “ I laughed and said I had not but as I haven’t got a deep freeze there wasn’t really any point. Everyone seemed surprised I did not have one. I said “Well I nearly had one about two years ago. Do you remember that someone gave one to the Church and Mary said after they had gone that the Church really did not have a use for it, she then asked if anyone needed one. I kept quite because I was very new and too shy to grab it. So I missed out” Irene Maria said “Well maybe not Tina” she went on to explain that it was Joan who had claimed it but as she lived upstairs in a flat and had a good one in perfectly good working order (just a bit rusty on the outside) they decided it was not worth all the effort. It got put in the store room and that is where it has remained for well over a year! Irene Maria asked if anyone had any objections to the Church giving it to me and everyone was delighted. I had my Freezer! We took it home that evening and could not believe how new it was, it has a top for ice cream etc and three large draws. It has not got a mark on it and did not even need a wash (although I gave it one lol) Friday morning saw Dave and I in Iceland spending next weeks house keeping. Oooh I was so excited…a large bag of pork and beef sausages for just 3.50 Euro, chops… mince, even a turkey breast joint for 6 Euros. My freezer is now quite full of the most exciting meats and vegs. Even a few ice-lolly’s in the top :O) You see there are Miracles aren’t they? God waited for Iceland to open before giving it to me. wooooweeeeee

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Mary and Ernie celebrated their GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY and asked Dave and I if we would be their guests in the new and wonderfully large posh Chinese Restaurant.

To make the evening as special as we could we had a pale pink (Mary’s favourite colour) crystal heart engraved with the words MARY AND ERNIE 1958. On it. I gift wrapped the box in gold paper with a pretty gold bow. I made them an anniversary card all in gold and very gold glittery as well.

The evening of the meal arrived, earlier that afternoon Dave had gone to see the staff to ask for the anniversary waltz to be played and a presentation of cheap champagne to be presented. We all set off to the restaurant. Dave wrote on a piece of paper ‘Mary and Ernie. Golden Wedding Anniversary’ and gave it to the man as we entered the restaurant as a reminder.

The meal was fantastic meal.

The live singer matched the meal, the manager of the restaurant gave us a nod and the band struck up and the singer sang loud and clear ‘Happy Birthday to you’ Happy Birthday Maryerniehappy birthday to you. Then he announced in broken English that it is Maryernies 50th Birthday today!

Well Mary did not know whether to be pleased they thought her 50 or to laugh out load, she did both :O).The manager came up with half a bottle of really expensive champagne (Mary and Ernie said so) we were so scared as we had said four glasses of a cheap champagne. To our amazement and gratitude he then said ‘on the house’

Later after eating Dave and I did our usual thing of getting up to dance to a slow Elvis song. After the dance was finished the singer then said in a load voice to the room

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

We were quite excited about hearing Helen Shapiro’s story about her converting from a Jew to a Christian.

As we had managed to sell 800 tickets (along with the Church that organized this outreach) we decided to get there really early in order to bag good seats if possible.

Dave and I had made a run the evening before and peeped in; we found the seating to be 800 plastic chairs one behind the other (not graduated). Both Rosemary and I were only 5.½"tall, also having Millie with us, (a tiny Philippino lady who is a head shorter than me!)We needed front row seats!

The outreach started at 7.30pm, we live about 15 minutes from the venue, and we decided to start off at 5.15pm. We arrived at 5.30pm and were the very first in line :O).

All the counselors were let in first for a briefing and a bite to eat (they had been there all afternoon praying for the outreach), eventually at 6.30pm the doors were opened for us, 800 seats are a lot of seats so there were no jostling at all. We managed to get the very seats we had decided we wanted the evening before, right in front of the rostrum!

We had been warned by Babs not to be disappointed as she had heard on the radio thgat Helen Shapiro did not sing at out reach events, also Jeanette who had attended one in Doncaster thinking it was a concert, was also very disappointed to find it a ‘boring two hour talk’ also a third lady who had attended one of these outreached by Helen Shapiro said Helen did not sing.

Well all I can say is we must have prayed hard enough and been very blessed because whilst we were sitting there at 7pm Helen walked onto the stage, she smiled and said “ I have 30 minutes before I officially start, what say we have a few songs” We were on the way to a fantastic evening :O)

Helen sang 21 gospel songs; we had not heard many of them before, a lot she sang in English breaking into Hebrew. It was extremely nice the way she had arranged the evening, she would be talking and the music would start very quietly, gradually getting loader and Helen would break into a song that was relevant to what she was saying, again the music would gradually get quieter as did her voice until it stopped and she would continue with her story.

Of course like many of these ‘witnessing’ stories there was also a lot of humour. At one point when she was telling us she had dared to eventually touch the new testament without God striking her dead on the spot, she then built up the courage to actually open it, she said she has never looked back, in fact she…. At this point the music started up and she sang ‘Walking back to happiness’

It would take a long time for me to tell you how she became a Christian, you must go yourself next time you see her advertised, but it was extremely interesting, funny and inspiring, not at all like Jeanette described as a boring two hours (sorry Jeanette).

Sitting where we were Helen often looked straight at either Dave or myself when singing, we would of course smile broadly at her. After she had sang her last song she came off the platform and whispered to Dave and myself, thank you for smiling so much, it is always so nice to get someone that welcomes you like that. Oooh great stuff :O)

Many, many people crowded Helen and virtually ignored the counselors who were lined up either side of Helen. She also had a body guard each side of her, one from our Church and one from the other Church.

Unfortunately at one point she got very agitated as people crowded her and kept tapping her for her attention whilst trying to talk to someone else. She said in no uncertain terms “Please step back, let us have privacy, I have been singing and talking for over two hours, please stand back.” They did so, for all of two seconds! I think that the body guards should have perhaps organized to row to stop her being crowded.

We waited patently until all had finished and then Dave and I went up to her, she gave us a wink and asked what she could do for her ‘smiler's’ Dave said he had always been confused about the Jewish ‘New testament’ how could the Jews have a ‘New testament’ when they have not excepted Christ as their Messiah. She explained that the Jewish New Testament was written by Christian Jews, she said she had read it and it was very heavy going, for her, she preferred our new testament.

We spoke to her for a while and then told her to go get some rest, she smiled and said ‘God Bless you both’ and was led off.

I asked one of the councilors from our Church ‘Liz’ if she could get the photo signed to all in ICA Church for the next News letter :O) Catherine managed to do so, in hind site it would have been very easy for us to have got it signed.

We returned to the car all buzzing from the evening. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time BUT the main highlight of the evening was when Dianna (the Mum of two members of our Church) gave her life to the Lord. Also Millie (the lady we took) friend and neighbor who is also a Philippino devote catholic also committed herself. Her husband who was a Steward become a Christian some time ago but his wife had remained a Catholic. She had many tears and trepidation but eventually went to talk with Helen,

after about 30 minutes we saw her repeating a prayer so we new at this point she had committed her life to being ‘born again’. Her husband was over the moon for her.

We have been told that eight people on that night became ‘born again in Christ’ many others perhaps to follow at a later date. Many asked for the leaflets and booklets and showed interest.

Surgery was early hours of Sunday morning. Dave got through the rest of the night with the help of morphine. The surgeon arrived about 8.30am that morning to talk with us and to explain how very seriously ill Dave had been and how serious the operation was, it was a bit scary for me. Dave slept for most of Sunday with regular visits from various nurses and doctors throughout the day, he also got regular morphine injections and one of his Four bags changed for a full one, this seemed to happen every hour or so. The day passed full of visitors for him, starting as always with Steve and Irene-Maria, although Dave was unaware of most :O)

I had a very disturbed night looking after poor Dave who had a lot of pain and felt very sick. No sleep at all.

Monday:

The following Day was a Monday and Dave’s improvement was evident to all. At six am the nurses would arrive to take blood. The surgeon arrived about 8.30 am to examine Dave’s tummy and explain all that was going on. He was amazed to see Dave sitting up and looking so healthy and happy. He kept saying “How you so well?” The blood results were also very good; the jaundice was disappearing faster than the surgeon could believe.

Later that morning Steve and Irene-Maria arrived and prayed with us, Steve explained that he had put Dave on a prayer chain (along with Poo) also the church were going to hold a prayer time for Dave, and have done so ever since. Joan (Dave’s sister) phoned to tell us that Dave has been put on their prayer chain and the Church body were also praying for him. Sunday passed with lots of food and drink for me, poor Dave was not allowed to eat at all.

We had visitor after visitor all that day, many Church family who prayed for us, but at the end of Monday Dave and I were exhausted. We were both ready for sleep. I had not slept of course since going to Hospital Friday.

Tuesday:

As usual the nurses woke us at 6 am for blood etc. and at about 8.30 the surgeon arrived to say that Dave’s jaundice had gone and his temperature was back to normal, again he kept saying how amazed he was at Dave’s recovery rate, impossible but it is true. He told us not so many visitors today as Dave must keep walking around the room to stop blood clots. He had so many drains and tubes that he wore only a very short hospital gown that done up badly at the back! What a sight he was lol. The surgeon removed the dressing to look at the wound. “Fantastic” I took a quick shot

he told Dave how pleased he was with his recover and that the ‘weeks’ may turn to days in the hospital” Dave immediately jumped in to say could he go to casa tomorrow. The surgeon said with a shrug of his shoulders “Maybe, you have a miraculous recovery rate, maybe indeed” He also said that today you have no visitors so you can walk around room. We said OK.

When Steve and Irene Maria arrived with all the goodies (it always included a plate of cakes and chocolates, and a yogurt.) We asked them to let the Church know how very grateful we were to them but we have been told by the doctor that we were to have no visitors until we returned home. This Steve did and apart from Jeanette and Brian andLiz the day was visitor free.

It was also my 64th Birthday :O). Only Jay knew this and she brought a card and present of sweets. A bag of liquorish allsorts (Dave’s favourite) so I gave them to him for when he got better. A chunky kit Kat- a bag of liquorish fruit sweets, and a very miniature carrier bag that held a musical ‘happy birthday’ tune.

Jeanette had gone to our post box and brought all my birthday cards up to me. You can see them in the background on the bed photo. Poor Dave only had two get wellcards! (He has now got five: O) The Church brought him a lovely one and all signed it with well wishes. (That was his first)

Later that morning Ernie came up with a beautiful birthday card with a message that It made me cry. It said

He also shocked us by telling us that Mary had been discharged, we were all confused as one minute she had surgery booked to unblock or replace the large artery that they could not manage to unblock before, and now suddenly she was going home!

I popped down to see Mary and she was very worried and not at all happy at being suddenly released like that. I do not think that Ernie could understand why or make him self understood. We were indeed blessed that our surgeon spoke perfect English with a little struggle.

After seeing Mary and Ernie off with the help of Liz I returned to my room to spend the rest of the day with Dave.

We spent a very quite afternoon with my help taking a slow walk down the corridors and around our room. What a funny site we must have made, I was wheeling one of his bag holder and his pee pee bag at the same time trying to hold his gown together and Dave was holding the other wheelie thing with a bag attached and his drainage bag whilst at the same time trying to get me to guide his catheter towards where it came from!!!! I kept lagging behind to clench his robe together! He said he would rather show off his bum than have his catheter pulled!!!!

We got a very early night, I had a sound sleep but Dave evidently did not. I was very upset at six when the nurse woke us to find that Dave had got out and into the armchair as he was in pain and then could not get back to bed. He did not wake me to help. I was so upset that I had slept through it.

Wednesday:

After the usual blood etcSteve and Irene-Maria arrived with goodies and then Jeanette and Brian with a salad and potato in jacket, Liz came later with sandwiches and a thermos, I had enough food to last me for ever. So different from my ten day stay in Vega Baja hospital where I had NO visitors at all, no money no food and no bed or bed clothing for me! A room was shared between two families, the other bed was occupied by an elderly man who looked and sounded as though he was 102 years old! About ten members of his family were there at any one time and as with most Spanish they were extremely loud with the Spanish radio blaring full blast.

Oooh nasty memories, back to today :O)

In this room I had a beautiful bed with a pillow supplied with crisp white sheets and a lovely blue velvety blanket, bliss! My bed folds away and becomes the wall to the large shelve.

I will take you on a quick tour of the room (although for some reason my mobile phone camera would only take sort of close up’s, I stood as far away as possible yet when I put the camera up it zoomed in, I could not show you how big the room was because of this.

This is the shower room (again it was quite large with shelving up inside.)

The surgeon arrived for his visit much later than usual, He was very pleased with Dave and said a few more days, maybe three or four. Dave said he would be happier at home and heal much quicker. The surgeon asked if he was unhappy with the hospital, Dave assured him that we were delighted with everything but home is home.

Eventually he said lets see how you manage with this out, he pointed to the catheter. After he left the nurse came in within minutes to remove it. I said to Dave I was taking a little walk and left them to it. When I came back he had NO tubes of any kind. All gone!

I was amazed, Dave said “I am free at last” not long after they brought him his first proper meal

I ate my wonderful salad and warm potato. It was simple delicious.

The surgeon came back to speak to Dave, he once again asked if he was sure about going home, it has been a very short visit. Dave assured him he would be fine. He shook Dave’s hand and said come back if you are feeling unwell at all, if you vomit or have pain. Dave said yes and he was gone with a smile and a ‘wonderful’

Once the forms were all filled in and the surgeon returned to check Dave out he said OK you can go but you are very welcome to stay a few more days, Dave thanked him and said he would be happier at home. We phoned for a lift and Jeanette and Brian arrived to take us home.

The doggies were delighted to see us, we were home! Over the next two days our home was like Piccadilly Circus, the phone never stopped ringing, I think every member of our family as well as every member of our Church family phoned. The visitors were also none

Stop. Every neighbour and friend visited Dave along with members of our Church.

This carried on for Thursday and Friday until we pulled down the blinds and turned the camera on the TV to monitor the visitors.

Saturday went by with hardly any visitors at all.

Sunday I decided to go to Church on my own as Dave was not up to it. I welcomed everyone in and stayed by the door as usual for 15 minutes after the service started to welcome late comers in. I had just sat down when I heard the door go, I decided to leave them to come in alone as it would be less disruption. I noticed someone walking down to the front and taking the platform, I thought it looked a lot like Dave. Suddenly he turned to face the front and to everyone’s amazement it was Dave. He asked Steve if he could say a few words. Steve was delighted to see him and said please.

Dave thanked every one for their prayers and said the surgeon had told Tina and me that I was very seriously ill and I had emergency surgery that ended with dialysis and the ICU ward and three days later I was walking from the hospital! God is good. He was so excited he was almost jumping!

We did not stay after the service as someone gave Dave a big hug and almost had him screaming in tears!